Tabernacle Coverings of Sea-cows
“They are to carry the curtains of the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, its covering and the outer covering of hides of sea cows, the curtains for the entrance to the Tent of Meeting” (Numbers 4:25 New International Version, 1984).
The word tachash (Strong’s 8476) occurs in the descriptions of the tabernacle in Exodus 25, 26, 35, 36, 39; in the directions for moving the tabernacle in Numbers 4; and in only one other passage, Ezekiel 16:10. In the Ezekiel passage Jerusalem is spoken of as a maiden clothed and adorned by her Lord.
In nearly all these passages the word tachash is combined with the word “skins,” and rendered in the King James Version “badgers’ skins,” the Revised Version (British and American) “seal-skin,” and the Revised Version, margin “porpoise-skin.” Gesenius (Leipzig, 1905) cites Bondi (Aegyptiaca, i. ff) who adduces the Egyptian root “t-ch-s” and makes the expression “of tachash” to mean, “of soft-dressed skin.”
Though the rendering “badger” is favored by the Talmudic writers, the main objection seems to be that badgers’ skins would probably not have been easily available to the Israelites. The badger, Meles taxus, though fairly abundant in and near Lebanon, does not seem to occur in Sinai or Egypt. Recent archeological findings strengthen the case for the “sea-cow,” or “dugong,” the cousin of the Florida manatee, to be the source of this leather outer covering of the tabernacle. Most late 20th century translations adopt this interpretation which goes back to the statement of Gesenius under the word tachash which adds that the Arabs of Sinai wore sandals of the sea-cow (dugong) skin as reported by 19th century travelers to the region.
This is of interest with reference to Ezekiel 16:10, “shod thee with badgers’ skin” (King James Version). As recently as the 1930’s, manatee leather (Trichechus inunguis) was in great demand for industrial use in Brazil. Native Americans also used manatee hides as leather for both shoes and shields and this adds weight to the use of this type of skin for domestic purposes and supports a similar practice in the Ezekiel text.
The dugong grazes on seaweed, and is known by naturalists as Halicore tabernaculi, where “tabernaculi” is a reference to the belief by taxonomists that this indeed is the actual creature that was used in the tabernacle. More commonly the dugong is known as the “sea-cow.” It inhabits the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean and adjoining waters, with a habitat extending to Australia. The dugong, or sea cow, belongs to the order Sirenia, and this gentle mammal has no natural enemies. Once thought to be a mermaid, the mythical half-fish, half-woman creature of the ocean, the dugong is one of the most entrancing mammals of the seas.
Manatee
Adults have brown or gray skin and a small, round face with tiny, wide-set eyes. Its skin is finely wrinkled, allowing for its top layer to slough off. This helps to reduce the build-up of surface algae and other growths on its back and sides, that can lead to injury and infection. There are no hind legs on the dugong and its front legs or “flippers” are paddle-like in appearance and have three or four nails at the tip.
Quite recently, (Science, 9 October 2009: “Celebrating the Dugong”), there was a report on the investigation of an ancient ritual mound in the Arabian Gulf that gives a provocative clue bearing on the importance of these creatures and their incorporation into the coverings of the Tabernacle. Apparently, coastal dwellers venerated dugongs.
When paleontologists first came upon a 10-square-meter mound of bones in 1989 on the island of Akab 190 kilometers northeast of Abu Dhabi, they assumed it merely contained the remains of dozens of butchered dugongs. But when archaeologist Sophie Méry of the French national research agency, CNRS, and colleagues excavated the site, they discovered an intricately constructed monument.
Akab’s Neolithic fishers had first laid jawbones of dugongs flat on the ground, wedged them in place with ribs, and drenched the assemblage with a red-ochre solution. On top they placed dugong skulls – all pointing toward the east – and bundles of ribs, as well as rare tubular stone beads and other ornaments. Their average size was 4 meters (13 feet).
“The discovery led us to various lines of questioning,” says Méry, who published the find in the latest issue of Antiquity. “Was it a sanctuary, a trophy, or a grave?” No similar site of this age has been discovered anywhere in the world. But, the authors note, aboriginal Australians built almost identical dugong bone mounds for hunting rituals beginning in the 14th century. Méry thinks similar rites took place on the Gulf coast thousands of years earlier. “The evidence,” says Mark Beech, an archaeologist at Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, “looks very convincing.”
For the Bible Student, these gentle, herbivorous, and possibly ritually clean creatures are like the church. They are out of their natural habitat – “the heavenlies” of Ephesians 2:6 – when they are visible to the world, even as the coverings of the tabernacle were out of their natural habitat, the water. They are not necessarily sightly, but they prove supple and enduring in use.
As noted in the Tabernacle Notes of Bro. Anton Frey, Jesus, in his pre-human existence was the Logos (“the Word,” John 1:1). His natural habitat was the spirit plane on which he was created (Revelation 3:4). Hence he was out of his natural habitat. The tabernacle covering was visible from outside the fence and “it was the outermost skin, rough and unsightly” (Tabernacle Shadows, page 127). Yet it served well to hide all that was beneath it – the ram skins dyed red; the goat hair curtain, the glorious curtain (i.e., the Tabernacle proper, Exodus 26:1).
These were the dwelling place of Jehovah God and its glorious mystery of atonement. Jesus’ flesh did not reveal him to be what he truly was – the Messiah for whom Israel had so long sought. When he presented himself to them, “his own received him not” (John 1:11) for they beheld in him “no form nor comeliness … no beauty that they should desire him” (Isaiah 53:1, 2).